Information Systems Architecture and Technology: Proceedings of 39th International Conference on Information Systems Architecture and Technology – ISAT 2018

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is devoted to creating computer software and hardware that imitates the human mind. The primary goal of AI technology is to make computers smarter by creating software that will allow a computer to mimic some of the functions of the human brain in selected applications. Applications of AI technology include; general problem solving, expert systems, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and education. All of these applications employ knowledge base and inferencing techniques to solve problems or help make decisions in specific domains.

The paper includes a proposal of a new model of synthesis multiprocessors systems with higher degree of reliability. Optimal task scheduling and optimal partition at resources are basic problems in high-level synthesis of computer systems. Concept of reliability is a system idea that integrates hardware and software. Reliability is a feature of the system, which reflects the degree of user’s dependency to the system and is reflected in the continuity of actions of the equipment and installed programs. Achieving a higher degree of reliability of the system is implemented during the system operation, which limits damage caused by failures. This implementation is manifested by introducing internal control into the system, diagnostic of damaged components and using redundant modules, which allows tolerance of damage, achievement of the ability to soft fall and survival of the system. Concurrent, coherent and computer aided synthesis may have a practical application in developing tools for rapid prototyping of such systems.

For several years, the analysis of security protocols time properties has been very important in the area of computer networks security. Up to now, however, it has been primarily used for timestamps analysis, without the other time related parameters being taken into account. As we can see in literature using formal, mathematical structures many problems can be considered and solved. In order to present the assets and liabilities of the tested protocol, depending on the known time parameters, we have proposed a mathematical model.For our research on security protocols time properties we use synchronized networks of timed automata – a specifically designed discrete mathematical model. This model allows to express and investigate the mentioned properties. In our work we also use encoding of structures and properties into Boolean propositional formulas that can be solved using SAT techniques. The investigation based on our model proved that even protocols which are potentially weak can be used with proper time constraints. In this paper we consider one of the popular security protocols: the WooLamPi protocol and its variations. By strengthening the crucial points, a way to improve protocol safety may also be found. Part of the work was to implement a tool which not only helps in the above mentioned activity, but also allows to display experimental results.

The work includes research results characterizing the impact of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) on the resources of host operating systems and virtual machines performance. Analysis of existing types of virtualization has been made. It was necessary to discuss the architectures of virtualization systems such as Xen Project, VMware ESXi, KVM and Oracle Virtualbox in order to outline differences in their structure, which will result in often very different results in the performance test. It was also necessary to present the concept of denial of service attack, its history and evolution over the years from simple DoS attacks in layer 3 and 4 of the OSI model by distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks most often implemented in layer 7 to their currently used forms which are multiplied DDoS attacks with reflection exploiting the weaknesses of the DNS protocol. The most attention was paid to the study of the impact of various types of DDoS attacks on the real performance of the virtualized system that based on Intel VT-x technology. To ensure the comprehensiveness of research results, the attacks were carried out in three layers, dividing each of them into several stages characterized by different intensity of network traffic.

Designers of distributed computer systems have to take into account many requirements concerning the system operation and functionalities. In case of distributed real-time systems there are two characteristic features of great importance: reliability and temporal characteristics. High reliability level may be achieved by implementation of redundancy. However, every additional element in the system, also the redundant one, influences its temporal characteristic, one of which is the response time critical for the operation of Networked Control Systems. In the following chapter a system with cost effective computing unit redundancy operating in hot standby mode is described and analyzed from the point of view of its real-time operation. The possibility of implementation of synchronization routines between the computing units is also considered.

In this paper, we consider the rate allocation problem in autonomic networks with Quality of Service guarantees. We assume that each link is managed by independent agent. Therefore, we consider our problem in the terms of the Game Theory. We introduce the algorithm which provable finds weak Pareto-optimal pure Nash Equilibrium. Such an approach may be implemented according to the autonomic networking paradigm. The initial simulation experiments, which have been performed for small backbone networks, indicate that the proposed method is a very promising one.

The paper presents the potential of using the Ising model to analyze changes in IT networks. These systems belong to the group of complex systems, like other natural systems, therefore, the processes occurring in them can be modeled using similar algorithms. The authors presented a modification of Ising algorithm based on the sensitivity factor. It allowed to take into account the individual susceptibility of separate nodes in the network structure to occurring changes. Due to the wide range of possibilities of using Ising model and, above all, its modifications, only a certain area of application has been presented in individual algorithms. Additionally, the use of the order parameter enabled presentation of phase transitions in the network structure.

The introduction of Software Over The Air (SOTA) Updates in the automotive industry offers both the Original Equipment Manufacturer and the driver many advantages such as cost savings through inexpensive over the air bug fixes. Furthermore, it enables enhancing the capabilities of future vehicles throughout their life-cycle. However, before making SOTA a reality for safety-critical automotive functions, major challenges must be deeply studied and resolved: namely the related security risks and the required high system safety. The security concerns are primarily related to the attack and manipulation threats of wireless connected and update-capable cars. The functional safety requirements must be fulfilled despite the agility needed by some software updates and the typically high variants numbers.We studied the state of the art and developed a generic SOTA updates system based on a Server-Client architecture and covering main security and safety aspects including a rollback capability. The proposed system offers release and variant management, which is the main novelty of this work. The proof of concept implementation with a server running on a host PC and an exemplary Electric/Electronic network showed the feasibility and the benefits of SOTA updates.

EU Regulation 2015/2120 introduces a network neutrality regime into European electronic communications law. The application and enforcement of the abstract rules established by the regulation influences all the stakeholders in the internet value chain. The regulation’s provisions are ambiguous and inconclusive. Legal and computer scientists must co–operate to provide an interpretation of those provisions that would, first, respect the rights of the end–users of internet access services and provide a user experience in line with the regulation, and second, respect the technical realities of managing traffic on the internet. The paper presents the legal framework of traffic management under the regulation and exposes problems which may only be resolved by a synthesis of the legal and computer science approaches. These include: the classification of traffic management measures into basic, reasonable and exceptional categories, recognized by the regulation; the admissibility of traffic classification; the definition of congestion befitting the regulation; the role of traffic management measures in congestion control. If these issues are not resolved, the exercise of the rights of end–users of internet access services may be limited, and the providers of these services may be subjected by national regulatory authorities to unreasonable obligations.

Service compositions are a means to create value-added services for service provider, as well as for service requester. From the consumer-centric point of view services that meet the predefined preferences of service requester add both economic value and satisfaction. In order to achieve consumer satisfaction in a market place it is necessary for service providers to design fair-algorithms for service composition and ranking of services, so that consumers will have less difficulty in selecting their most preferred services without much difficulty. This consumer-oriented approach has the potential to add value-added trust for business, leading to profitable business and healthier consumer relation. Motivated by this theme this paper proposes a fair ranking algorithm for composite services.

This paper describes effectiveness metrics for the SelfAid Network — quantified values providing information about the quality of functioning of the system. Proposed metrics capture, among others, the cost of running the application, user satisfaction, and resistance to failures. The metrics were specifically chosen for the SelfAid network, a platform for game matchmaking systems. Matchmaking, in online multiplayer games, refers to the process of finding players for online play sessions. It can function based on ranking (such as ELO in chess), matching players choosing the same difficulty level (for cooperation-based games), etc. The paper presents the results of applying the proposed metrics to a simulation of the SelfAid network.

Providing high quality of Web services is now very important for most of the services. The application of cloud computing in Web systems enables lower costs and increases efficiency and reliability. In the paper we present a design of two-layer decision-making method in a cloud-based Web system TLCWS (Two-Layer Cloud-based Web System). It uses the neuro-fuzzy approach to enable the distribution of HTTP requests. The proposed method is design to minimize the response time of each request. The simulation experiments show that the proposed approach is more than just adequate and that it is possible to shorten the response time required for requests significantly.

We can observe a paradigm shift with respect to government data centres. Due to the complexity of such a data centre system, new types of quality attributes should be used, such as resilience, trustworthiness, and sustainability. This paper offers a general approach to the transformation of government data centres for different enterprise levels from a resilience point of view. It presents an enterprise architecture approach to the development of a federal data centre, considering resilience as a quality attribute. The approach is supported by using ArchiMate: an enterprise architecture modelling language. Resilience is considered from various perspectives: business, application, infrastructure and physical. An agnostic solution is proposed which is based on architecture and design patterns.

We researched the implementation of Grover’s Algorithm on two qubits and carried out a series of experiments on the Quantum Processors QX2 and QX4 [1] to see how it can be optimized. We found that by adjusting the Oracle function of the algorithm, we can extend the solution base, from $$ 2^{n} $$ to $$ 5^{n} $$, where n is the total number of available qubits that are used to build the algorithm. The method presented in this paper makes possible to execute Grover’s Algorithm with 25 different Oracle functions and obtain all unique solutions by using only 2 entangled qubits, if we choose to expand the solution base from µ ϵ $$ \left\{ {0,1} \right\}^{n} $$ to µ belonging to a set of 25 unique output values, where µ is the item being searched using Grover’s method.

The article focuses on presenting methods allowing easy parallelization of an existing, sequential Natural Language Processing (NLP) application within a multi-core system. The actor-based solution implemented with the Akka framework has been applied and compared to an application based on Task Parallel Library (TPL) and to the original sequential application. Architectures, data and control flows are described along with execution times for an application analyzing an online dictionary of foreign words and phrases.

The paper presents a semi-automatic image registration method. It includes a discussion of the most frequently used image registration methods and an analysis of the effectiveness of the registration of images of the tested object. The tested object was a power line supporting structure. For the purposes of the study, a series of photographs of this object were taken and acquired with images generated on the basis of a 3D model of the scene in a CAD environment. The main objective of the image registration performed was to allow the comparison of the actual condition of the structure (e.g. resulting from vision inspection performed by means of flying machines) with the design documentation.

Writing efficient general-purpose programs for Graphics Processing Units (GPU’s) is a complex task. In order to be able to program these processors efficiently, one has to understand their intricate architecture, memory subsystem as well as the interaction with the Central Processing Unit (CPU). The paper presents the GAP - an automatic parallelizer designed to translate sequential ANSI C code to parallel CUDA C programs. The general processing architecture of GAP is presented. Developed and implemented compiler was tested on the series of ANSI C programs. The generated code performed very well, achieving significant speed-ups for the programs that expose high degree of data-parallelism. The results show that the idea of applying the automatic parallelization for generating the CUDA C code is feasible and realistic.

Today, the demand for security infrastructure is focused on perimeter defenses, for example, firewalls, proxies, IPS and content filtering. The idea associated with cloud computing has dramatically changed from the last-mentioned concepts, due to new ideas associated with the implementation of corporate IT services over the Internet. The virtualized applications running on leased servers and accepting network connections are denominated cloud services. Cloud services classify in publics and privates, although it exists another type known as hybrid clouds, which is mixed of the before mentioned ideas. On these days, a very important paradigm is how to delivery security services that satisfy the requirements of all corporate users. Therefore, the principal service analyzed in this paper is the security as a service known as SECaaS. The importance of the before mentioned concept is the possibility to analyze contents in a controlled environment, where policies forbid the execution of files with super user privileges and the contents are well verified. Finally, the importance of this paper is focused in the necessity of the optimal distribution of security infrastructure, deployed as cloud services, which simplify and accelerate the detection of compromised endpoints based on generated traffic logs analysis or user behaviors.

This paper describes methods for making 3D scans of building interiors. The main application of these methods is the development of first-person view (FPV) perspective games or creating virtual museums. 3D scans can be made with the use of different equipment such as Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), time of flight (TOF) cameras and structural light 3D scanners. However, the paper focuses on using stereo cameras for obtaining 3D scans, because of its low cost. It is a significant factor for small and medium size game development studios. The paper considers both the method based on photogrammetry and stereophotogrammetry. In photogrammetry the Structure from Motion technology is used for making 3D scan on the basis of images of an object taken from different locations. Photogrammetry uses stereo vision algorithms for acquiring depth maps and point clouds representing distances between a stereo camera and objects. The paper analyses implementations of these technologies available in programing libraries OpenCV, openMVG and openMVS. The paper shows that the algorithm for Structure from Motion provided in openMVG can be successfully applied for obtaining point clouds from pair of images despite this algorithm is intended for use with a greater number of input images.

The performance comparison of two head-controlled interaction systems was made using a multi-directional tapping test on the basis of Fitts’ paradigm, as recommended by ISO 9241-9 standard. Both investigated input systems were based on head position and movements visual recognition by a camera and a special software. The study was made on the sample of 14 healthy subjects without motoric deficiencies, with counterbalanced within-subject experiment design. Both systems were marked by similar error rates (average 23.45%), while their throughput values were significantly different (0.67 versus 1.92 bit/s). Additionally, a comparison of performance characteristics with several other head activated systems was made by means of a literature review.

The purpose of the paper is to apply EEG spectral analysis to compare brain activity during Virtual Reality (VR) stimulation. This preliminary study covers analysis of EEG data from three participant at the age of 20–25. In the examination 10–20 EEG system was applied. The examination consists of resting state recording as well as five intervals with different VR simulation intended to evoke different emotions such as anger, fear or excitement. These scenarios were presented for participant with special goggles designed for displaying VR. Collected data has been subjected to preprocessing covering filtering and artifacts elimination and spectral analysis. As a result maps of power spectral from each intervals and wave band distribution were obtained. Changes were observed in alpha/theta ratio for various emotional sates. What is more, the amplitude value of alpha wave indicated strong changes among particular intervals.

The growing size of modern databases and recommendation systems make it necessary to use a more efficient hardware and also software solutions that will meet the requirements of users of such systems. These requirements apply to both the size of databases and the speed of response, quality of recommendation. The evolving techniques of the quantum computational model offer a new computing possibilities. This chapter presents an approach based on the quantum algorithm of k-nearest neighbours, and Grover’s algorithm for building a recommendation system. The algorithmic correctness of the proposed system is analysed. The advantages of the presented solution are also indicated such as exponential capacity system and response speed which are independent of the amount of classic data stored in the quantum system. The final computational complexity does not depend on the amount of features but only on the length of the feature.

Many universities conduct survey research in order to evaluate and improve quality of their education processes. Surprisingly, replacing traditional paper-based questionnaires with electronic ones usually decreases response rates and thus negatively affects overall reliability of results. In the paper, this issue is addressed and an effective approach to academic surveying is described, including a recommended strategy, matrix-based questionnaire representation, methods and technical framework for data handling. A crucial part of this method is the Survey Analyser – an innovative application, which automates the processing of questionnaire results using information extraction and transformation. The proposed surveying method and the corresponding software were successfully implemented into production environments at two universities, showing good performance based on real-life results.

In this paper a customer business analysis using data mining tools and marketing performance index will be presented. Mechanisms based on machine learning principles will be described and discussed. Customer logs will be analyzed using two different tools and compared for decision making process.

The semantics of UML presented in the OMG standard is defined informally in plain language. The lack of formal semantics brings ambiguity problems, crucial especially in case of automation of system development process and design of tools supporting the process (that implement validation of the systems’ specification, model-checking, transformations, or code generation). The aim of the paper is to discuss a list of interpretation problems related to part of UML, i.e. Activity. Authors indicate inconsistencies and problems caused by a lack of information in the UML specification, which were identified by them during an attempt of formalization of the Activity semantics.

Gang-of-Four design patterns are valuable architectural artefacts in object-oriented design and implementation. Detection of design patterns in an existing code takes an important role in software evolution and maintenance. A lot of work has been devoted to development of methods and tools that support automatic detection of design patterns. There have been scarcely any attempts to detect design patterns in C# programs. We have focused on the refinement and extension of the approach of A. Nagy and B. Kovari. In this paper we discuss the rules for mining of a subset of GoF design patterns in C# applications. These rules have been used to enhance the program that detects design patterns in C# applications. The mining results of both tools were compared.

Scalable web systems are directly related to distributed storage systems used to process large amounts of data (big data). An example of such a system is Hadoop with its many extensions supporting data storage such as SQL-on-Hadoop systems and the “Parquet” file format. Another kind of systems for storing and processing big data are NoSQL databases, such as HBase, which are used in applications requiring fast random access. The Kudu system was created to combine the advantages of Hadoop and HBase and enable both effective data set analysis and fast random access. As subject of the research, performance analysis of the mentioned systems was performed. The experiment was conducted in the Amazon Web Services public cloud environment, where the cluster of nine virtual machines was configured. For research purpose, containing about billion rows fragment of “Wikipedia Page Traffic Statistics” public dataset was used. The results of the measurements confirm that the Kudu system is a promising alternative to the commonly used technologies.

The usage of phonetic similarity in comparison of textual strings and elimination of misprints is one of significant issues in philology. It is widely used in automatic text checking. Nowadays most of phonetic algorithms are designed for English language words processing. The quality of comparison may be decreased for non-English languages especially for languages, which have rich morphology and use non-Latin alphabet symbols, e.g. East Slavic languages with Cyrillic letters. We propose an approach to phonetic comparison of Russian language words. It is based on detection letters and letter sequences that have similar pronunciation according to rules of the language. The resultant phonetic representation of the words are coded by prime numbers. The efficiency of the reviewed algorithm is considered in the paper. The algorithm was adopted for Mongolian language phonetic processing.

In this paper, we show how e-business performance metrics gain from Web Performance Optimization (WPO). We study the application of WPO to improve the conversion and bounce rates for the credible opinions form of one of the biggest Polish opinion web portals. We evaluated and optimized two types of opinion forms, namely the company and product opinion forms. We applied modern WPO techniques suggested in the literature. The conversion of the company opinion form was the primary aim of our optimization. We observed and analyzed the effects using Google Analytics tools connected to the application and internal analytic panel. We collected the conversion and bounce rates before and after the optimization. The result for the company opinion form is auspicious, showing its high conversion increase from 6.35% to 14.30% within six months of observation nevertheless the product opinion form got the significant decrease, from 3.69% to 1.68%. We discuss and explain the possible reasons for such a situation. We used WebPageTest to test the performance of both opinion forms, before and after the optimization.

We have proposed and implemented a system that supports evacuation after a large-scale disaster. When a large-scale disaster such as earth-quake or conflagration occurs, it may not be possible to pursue predefined evacuation route due to collapsed buildings or fire. The refugees have to select an optimal evacuation route according to circumstances. In such situations, however, it is almost impossible for refugees to grasp the precise circumstance and find the correct evacuation route. In order to mitigate this situation we have proposed a system based on smart phones and server/client system, and implemented it. We make the server side perform the basic processing for evaluating the dynamic situation based on the information collected from refugees’ smartphones using crowdsourcing technique so that the system configuration is flexible. The evaluation is performed based on the idea of the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm on the server side. We have implemented the client side of the evacuation route guiding system on both Android OS and iOS, and the server side on Linux system. We have achieved to construct a practical system applicable for real world assuming network infrastructure is intact.

The purpose of this article was to identify factors influencing intention to use mobile device during purchasing process. To achieve this goal Technology Acceptance Model extended with additional variables (social influence and perceived enjoyment) was chosen as the research model. There were 500 respondents from 5 Polish cities – Warsaw, Poznań, Gdańsk, Wrocław and Białystok. Data was collected with paper questionnaire and analyzed with partial least square path modeling (PLS-SEM) method in Smart PLS 3 software. Model explained over 50% of variance of endogenous variable. According to results perceived usefulness has the strongest influence on intention (0.389; p < 0.01). Other statistically significant predictors of intention were perceived ease of use (0,222; p < 0.01) and perceived enjoyment (0,172; p < 0.01), while social influence turned out to be the sole insignificant factor in the model (0.050; p > 0.05). Outcomes of the study suggest that sellers should focus on the utilitarian aspects of the mobile sales in the first place (such as providing free delivery of products, offering multitude of payment options and increasing overall performance of their websites), and then also on the facets related to simplifying of the mobile shopping (production of video tutorials, clear and plain explanations regarding purchasing process on the website) and pleasure of the mobile buying process (creation of additional features in the sellers’ applications e.g. quizzes, games or downloadable materials).

This work presents the design rationale and implementation details of a test programming language that is meant to retain the semantics and look-and-feel of the standardized TTCN-3 test language, while being able to run on Arduino-class microcontrollers (with resources many orders of magnitude smaller than originally required by TTCN-3). This is a part of a larger project that aims at harmonizing the test approaches and test tools of distinguishable research communities that joined forces in their work on Socio-Technical Systems providing subtle health-related interventions. The tiny testers (the IoT devices themselves) are meant primarily to supervise validation experiments in such systems.

Modern cyber manufacturing has been introduced into a broad range of manufacturing processes to ease their digital reconfigurability and enhance flexibility while retaining a high throughput of quality products. Such a system provides real-time data acquisition, enabling monitoring of the actual condition of the manufacturing process. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) facilitates such real-time monitoring and optimization of the fabricating system, which reduces time necessary for maintenance with the possibility of almost instantaneously taking any necessary corrective measures with respect to either human to the machine/process from learned algorithms. In this research, an original IIoT approach has been proposed to monitor the process conditions, including nozzle temperature and filament breakage/runout, of the additive manufacturing process. In particular, concurrent multi-task IIoT communication was developed for a network of five nodes. This was implemented to ensure real time monitoring of the manufacturing process via multi sensors and empowered by an embedded software design. The proposed embedded software architecture offers a reliable solution to eliminate communication latency and provides real-time response to acquired information. It is worth emphasizing that the embedded software was designed so that it optimally exploits the very great potential of the hardware resources, with the ability to detect run-time issues in the nodes’ performance and re-try to address such issues to maintain a high capability networking communication. The designed architecture also offers auto-scaling throughput of the data transferred to the cloud to minimize the bandwidth.

The recent boom of e-shops and network-based advertising tools clearly showed the power of new technologies and solutions in the area of trade and marketing. However, so far little attention has been paid to apply e-* systems to real stores and marketplaces. This situation was mainly caused by the lack of efficient tracking tools, equivalent to network-based log analysis, server- and client-side cookies, timing registration and examination, etc. Thus, an efficient implementation of, e.g. a recommendation system or instant advertisement in a real store was quite problematic. In this paper, we propose to apply Internet of Things devices and services to fill the gap and to get additional information about the behavior and the activities of the customers in a real store. Such information would be used as a basic input for different marketing tools, including above-mentioned recommendation systems, instant advertisement and promotion, JIT discounts, etc. We assume two-level architecture of the system: local networks of IoT devices and necessary hubs, and a shared marketing server, to implement several marketing utilities and strategies. The paper is devoted to the organization of the first level, namely a local multiplexer and virtualizer of IoT devices, including not only simple HVAC sensors, but also RFID/NFC/QR/BLE localizers, surveillance cameras with intelligent image-processing extensions, as well as a protocol to share the information obtained from the local sensors with the cloud.